Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of vehicular display systems such as, but not limited to, aircraft display systems
Description of the Related Art
Aeronautical Radio, Inc. (“ARINC”) and/or Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (“RTCA”) develop aviation industry standards. Two of the standards are ARINC Specification 816 entitled “Embedded Interchange Format for Airport Mapping Database” (“ARINC 816”) and RTCA DO-272C entitled “User Requirements for Aerodrome Mapping Information” (“DO-272”). As the titles suggest, these standards address issues regarding the mapping of airports and the protocols for storing data corresponding to mapping. These standards have been developed, in part, due to airport complexity combined with the growth of traffic on the ground increases the level of risk during taxi operations. As a result, embedded systems for aircraft taxi operations are being developed in order to ease the pilots' tasks and to improve crew familiarity with the airport and situational awareness. At the time of this writing, Airport Mapping Databases (singularly, “AMDB”) are being produced and used by such embedded systems.
In June 2012, Supplement 2 of ARINC 816 was published as ARINC 816-2. Supplement 2 introduced the concept of an Aerodrome Surface Routing Network (“ASRN”) comprised of a web of nodes and edges connecting the nodes. Basically, data representative of nodes and edges stored in the AMDB have been added to data that was being stored prior to the introduction of Supplement 2, where such previously-stored data includes data representative of runway features, helipad features, taxiway features, frequency area features, apron features, parking features, vertical structure features, water, and construction areas. When this data is applied, the images of airport surfaces, surface markings, and airport structures (to name a few) may be easily rendered by an image generator. The addition of the ASRN will improve upon the information presented as the ASMM is rendered as an image.